Pantone color keeps changing on me

> Photoshop keeps trying to approximate the values of PMS 288C to the closest RGB or CMYK equivalents
That is the part I did not understand.
I was under the mistaken belief that the Pantone color swatches from which I was choosing my colors were *ALL* reproducable in the CMYK printing process. The printer I spoke to seemed to indicate that he could print *any* pantone color I chose. I find it strange that the printer even recommended that I use "Reflex Blue" which is not able to be printed using CMYK. To print that I would need a spot color on a 5th plate since I am already using "full color" images. (so I can't use a black + spot color process).

So one final question, is it true that when designing an image in CMYK, I *must* stick to colors (including preset Pantone colors) that do *not* have the out of gamut warning? Otherwise they will be approximated to the nearest "in gamut" CMYK representation?

Oh, and I am using 100 dots per cm (that's about 254 dpi)

Thanks for the info - things are starting to make sense now.
Paul

Hi zebada,

Printing CMYK + one or two spot colours is not rare, so that is what your printer may have meant. If you have a JPG comp of your image that you can upload somewhere that would be great as it would let me see what the colour breaks are. Having worked in the screening industry for several years, I'm used to eyeing images and calculating the minimum amount of inks that would be required for good reproduction.

The PMS system consists of over 800 colours only, a lot less in numbers than what you can reproduce using 4-colour process; but there are certain shades in the PMS gamut that have no CMYK equivalent. Also, some PMS colours have special characteristics like metallic or neon shines. Some PMS colours have more transparency, too; they look kind of "watery", like Rhodamine Red, and are reccommended for mixing only; mixing being the combination of "base" PMS inks to obtain a particular colour.

The "out of gamut" warning is mostly to indicate that a selected colour is not being reproduced accurately on screen (RGB). If you're designing on CMYK for print only then you should not worry about it except in that when choosing out of gamut colours Photoshop is displaying only an approximation of that colour and the printed product may look more or less different. That's why, before running a job in a press, a printer produces a colour proof sheet to show the customer what exactly he's getting. The same if you're designing in PMS colours only. Out of Gamut means the colour you've chosen is not being displayed accurately and thee may be differences. That's where the Pantone swatch book comes handy, by showing you exactly what your colours look like.

I hope this i of help to you. If you need more clarifications please do not hesitate to ask.

Good Vibes!

Lobo